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Comment on Am I the only one who feels uncomfortable about many Americans constantly calling people "black" and "white" and making such a big thing about it?

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Social_Discussion@lemm.ee ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

I think it’s very important to face the issue and not be blind about it. But it should be faced by acknowledging “we separate people based on their skin shade and we should give efforts to stop doing that”.

Because I think it’s pretty much self-explanatory that separation on purely ethnicity/looks is not a constructive where people are artificially treated as if they were different even though they’re not. I think the damage clearly outweighs here.

Justifying racism by saying ‘this is what we always did and it worked like that’ is not the right way forward imo as we can’t stick in the past and make the same mistakes that could be successfully improved.

Of course this can’t be changed overnight but I think it’s important to start somewhere as I think no one wants to live in such unfair system like this. I haven’t said other countries aren’t affected by this but at least here in Germany it feels like it’s not being done to the extent like in America based on any purely ethnicity difference like skin, eye or hair appearance.

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captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
Kid, you are nothing short of adorable.

How long were the Nazis in power in Germany? About ten years, fifteen? 1930’s to the Mid-1940’s? During how much of that time were Jews discriminated against, subjugated and slaughtered? Even if it started on day one, fifteen years is a fraction of one human lifetime. How would you describe the relationship between ethnic Germans and Jews today, given that little incident 80 years ago? Any grudges or awkwardness there?

Now I want you to imagine it was allowed to go on for a century, followed by another century of “the law says we’re merely allowed to treat you as a second-class citizen now, so get to the back of the fucking bus.”

Segregation in the United States lasted long enough for separate dialects of English to form. Turns out that wounds that took generations to carve are taking generations to heal. Imagine that for a moment.

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- TheAvarageNerd@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  I think I have to point out, that the Nazis weren’t the only ones discriminating against and slaughtering Jews in Europe. There’s a long history of that, going back centuries. Ever heard of the cruscades for example? They didn’t limit themselves to killing non-Christian only in the holy lands. The Nazis were just the ones who did the killings on an industrial scale. But their reasoning for doing it goes way, way back. en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_Jews
  
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- starlinguk@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  The Jews have been discriminated against and slaughtered for CENTURIES. Herr Hitler was just one of the many, many leaders who committed genocide. They’ve been segregated since forever. This wasn’t just 15-year booboo.
  
  And don’t get me started on Leopold II and the Dutch and British empires.
  
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  - captain_aggravated@sh.itjust.works ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    …Great job, Europe?
    
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- 3dogsinatrenchcoat@slrpnk.net ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
  
  Segregation in the United States lasted long enough for separate dialects of English to form.
  
  dude, european jews were segregated so long that new languages formed
  
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  - Lv_InSaNe_vL@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
    The black plague was, in part, blamed on European Jews poisoning the town wells haha
    
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wjrii@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago

Because I think it’s pretty much self-explanatory that separation on purely ethnicity/looks is not constructive where people are artificially treated as if they were different even though they’re not. I think the damage clearly outweighs here.

Justifying racism by saying ‘this is what we always did and it worked like that’ is not the right way forward imo as we can’t be stuck in the past and make the same mistakes that could be successfully improved.

What I’m trying to get at is that while appearance is not any kind of enlightened reason for distinct communities to have arisen, through accidents of history and genetics they did, and they are still relevant and appreciated by the people who are part of them. The color terminology is shorthand that acknowledges history. It’s not “justifying racism” to accept that in many places your ethnic background, especially if visible, means that certain experiences will have been more or less common for you. You can engage in this, even light heartedly, in good faith and as a way to understand your neighbors better, and indeed to think of them as your friends and neighbors instead of “Other.” People who are trying to do right by their fellow Americans are not using it to “separate,” but acknowledging that separation gave rise to proud, distinct communities and there’s no value in snuffing that out. The dialogue can be a way to unite us.

I believe we can agree that using visible “racial” markers to treat someone as less valuable than someone else is disturbing and evil, and still sadly common. I’m just saying that it’s not the mere use of the terms, or creating media that acknowledges them that results in the continuation of racism. Hell, in some ways, refusing to acknowledge differences gives a person with bad intent the license to settle on a single definition of what it means to be a “proper” American and to decide that anyone who doesn’t act the right way is less valuable: “I didn’t refuse to hire him because he’s black, but because he dresses and speaks differently. All he has to do is be exactly like me and I’d be more than happy to hire him!” (coughJDVancecoughcough)

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EditsHisComments@lemmy.world ⁨1⁩ ⁨day⁩ ago
They’re not justifying racism, they’re explaing how the US has gotten to where it is today and why people act as they do. The culture here regarding it is different compared to most parts of Europe, and people generally are trying very much to combat these issues. But as this is a deeply cultural and historical undertaking in the US, a lot of change - cultural, political, or otherwise - will happen very slowly and will not always appear progressive. Seit du Deutsch bist, weißt du, Fortschritt ist kompliziert.

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